A REVIEW OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND MECHANISMS FOR BENEFITS-SHARING FROM WILDLIFE: THE CASE STUDY OF MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE
Abstract
The initial exclusion oflocal communities in benefit sharing from the wildlife industry has
resulted to heightened tension and exacerbated prevailing human wildlife conflict. A
situation which gave impetus to the concept of Wildlife benefits sharing with the
community. The community because of the sacrifices it has made over the use of its land
for animal production have begun to question the need to coexist with Wildlife within its
land due to dismissal benefits they receive. The laws and policies that were used during
and even after independence regarding conservation have less regards to the local
community and has led to resentment and a perception real or imaginary of exploitation of
the local community. Consequently, managing wildlife coexistent with host community
continues as a challenge leading to rampant poaching in the recent past. The study aimed
at assessing the arrangement within the law that gives community adjacent to the Maasai
Mara National Reserve entitlement to benefit from Wildlife, examining the available
benefits and the mechanisms to access benefits to communities adjacent to the Reserve.
The study data was obtained from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data
was collected from key informer interviews and focused group discussions. The key
informers were reached through questionnaires and targeted County Government officials,
and investor in the industry, while the Focus group was carried on community members.
Additional primary data came from the Kenya Constitution and statutes touching on
Wildlife. Secondary data were obtained from written literature in books, which were
analyzed to deduce information relevance on the law and mechanisms for benefits sharing
from wildlife to community which host wildlife. The Data collected showed that
community perceives the term benefits differently from what is stipulated in law. For them,
they think that benefits refer to compensation for losses they suffer as a result of wildlife
attacks. They are not aware that the law entitles them to benefit sharing from wildlife.
Despite this kind of perception, implementation of payment of compensation is a challenge
as well as it takes a long time for the government to compensate them or they are never
compensated at all, thus they revert to killing of the wildlife that has attacked their
livestock. The available benefits are channeled through the Governor office which makes
benefits distribution inaccessible and highly control by the Governor Office and prone to
political interference. The Overreaching recommendation is that County laws should be
amended to provide for County and others stakeholders to provide benefits to communities
as well as developing mechanisms that allow communities to participate in benefits sharing'
arrangement.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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